Salty Podcast #12 | 🏝️⛵ LIVE from a Sailboat in the Caribbean | SV Island Spirit! 🌊🌞

Cap'n Tinsley talks to Hayden & Radeen from their anchored Island Packet sailboat in Sint Maarten in the Caribbean.  Audio from LIVESTREAM video March 6, 2024.

SALTY ABANDON is Captain Tinsley & First Mate Salty Scotty from Orange Beach, AL: 
Oct 2020 to Present - 1998 Island Packet 320;
2015-2020 - 1988 Island Packet 27 (lost in Hurricane Sally Sep 2020)

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#saltyabandon #sailing #podcast #islandpacket #sailboat #sintmaarten #caribbean #islandspirit

Transcript

Good evening, everybody.

00:02
This is Captain Tinsley, Salty Abandon and the Salty Podcast #12.

00:09
And we have a very special set of guests tonight.

00:12
We have Ray Dean and Hayden Cochran of sailing vessel Island Spirit.

00:19
So without further ado, I'm going to bring them out.

00:24
Good evening.

00:25
Hello, Tinsley.

00:26
Good to see you all.

00:28
Just one.

00:30
Good, goodSo I think we just have a limited time with you, so I'm just going to get right to it.

00:38
Um Tell us where you are.

00:41
We're in St.

00:42
Martin on the Dutch side of the island, anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon.

00:47
And we've been here for about a week now, and we're loving it.

00:51
This was our destination to get back here to St.

00:53
Martin two years ago.

00:56
OK, so you're planning on staying there a while?

00:59
We're going to stay here for another week and then we're going back over to the Virgin Islands for some service work and link up with our buddy boat, Alex and Amy, and then come back down here again and then on to St.

01:10
Barts in Antigua.

01:13
Yeah.

01:13
Okay, so you're going to continue through the islands.

01:17
Oh yeah, yeah we're going down.

01:18
We're storing the boat in Antigua this year.

01:21
So we're going to leave it there.

01:23
And what we want to do is base the boat in the Caribbean for the nextTwo seasons or maybe three and stop this stop this running back and forth from Annapolis down the coast of Stuart and then over to the Caribbean.

01:38
It's been our this is our fifth trip.

01:41
No third, but it feels like.

01:43
Yeah, yeahYeah it does put a lot of wear and tear on the boat, doesn't it?

01:48
Yeah, it's a lot of miles.

01:49
It takes about a month to two months to come down the coast and then it takes a good month.

01:55
Going east from florida to get down through the thorny path as they call it to get down here but now that we're here we're we're so relaxed and just We're saying we're not leaving.

02:06
We want to just stay here And this is our new favorite place right now.

02:10
St.

02:10
Martin.

02:11
Yeah Well, it makes sense that way.

02:13
You don't have to spend so much time going back either You can spend more time where you are if you store that i've seen the way you store your boat, by the way That's uh the process that you go through.

02:23
It's pretty incredibleSo tell us about Island Spirit.

02:29
Yeah, well, we've had Island Spirit since 2001.

02:34
It's an island pack of 35, 1994.

02:38
We're the second owners.

02:39
We bought it from an 85 year old owner that was moving to a kayak.

02:46
We bought it privately from him and the boat had absolutely nothing done to it from the day he bought it.

02:55
It was the Annapolis Boat Show boat in 1994.

02:59
And then when we bought it, we decided to commission it all up for everything we wanted 'cause we had had a 27 island packet for 10 years and we wanted to buy this boat to go out to sea, to go down to Cape Bay and off the Block Island and up to New England.

03:14
So we commissioned this in 2001 and 2002 and set it up with everything we wanted.

03:22
So it's really well set up.

03:25
Well, cool.

03:26
OK, so you see Scott Myrick has just sent you a, if you look on your screen.

03:31
Good evening, Hayden and Radine.

03:33
Oh, hello.

03:35
Scotty right there.

03:36
He's at the gym on the treadmill.

03:38
Oh, he's working.

03:39
I see you there.

03:40
He's working out.

03:41
Thanks a lot, Scotty.

03:42
I see.

03:43
I see you there.

03:44
Yeah, it's great.

03:45
So I mean, we're pretty thrilled about the setup, all the, you know, because when we set her up, we.

03:52
We did the radar, the autopilot, the refrigeration, the air conditioning, the inverters, the battery bank, the windlass-- It didn't have that.

04:00
It didn't have that.

04:01
The only thing this boat had was the standard wind speed and depth and a VHF radio to go to the boat show.

04:10
They commissioned the boats in Rock Hall, they would send them over to the boat show, and they would get sold out of the boat show.

04:19
And the person that bought this boat never did anything to it so so my 1998 since you're an expert we haven't covered that yet, but um My 1998 do you think it came with all that or do you think it was added like I have air conditioning?

04:37
No when when the book when the boats came from the factory The original island packet factory did no commissioning they built the boat one way and one way only they wouldn't even change a winch ora wire, it was, it came out of the factory with no stalls, no refrigeration, no air conditioning, no battery upgrades, no windlass, no big anchors.

05:00
And so then they would go to the dealers and the dealers would have this business of commissioning the new yachts for the new owners.

05:09
And so multiple island packet owners that would order a new island packet every two, three, five years, which we have a bunch of friends that have done that.

05:19
Uh, the boats would come into the dealership and the dealership would then spend months commissioning them And that's how it was done.

05:26
So your original owner could have added all those things, but they would have been extra They would have been after after the uh factories.

05:34
So sailing bad is sending you a Um a greeting here.

05:38
Hi y'all from deltaville, virginia looking good had fun in annapolis.

05:42
So you got your fans on here Yes, thank you.

05:46
That's greatYeah, so we we just commissioned it with, with at that point, there was a guy had had worked for the the dealership in Rock Hall, and he had gone out on his own, and all of us that were second and third time island packet owners would hire this guy to do the commissioning privately.

06:07
And so, for the Island Spirit, we hired him to commission our boat, and I think he worked eight or 10 weeksfull-time on commissioning island spirit when did you and I do have a question about your island packet 27, but um When did you change the chain plates because I know you're a big advocate of getting that done with Colin and everything Yeah, yeah, the chain plates are a big deal uh, there's a lot of backstory to that but basically in 2013 we trucked our boat back to the original island packet factory at that time and2011 and 2012 and 2013, we had been asking the island packet factor to take our boat back to do a chain plate job and to investigate the idea of having a refit program.

07:03
So 2015, they rejected us.

07:06
2012, they rejected us.

07:08
2013, they said, We'll try it.

07:11
So Radine and I came back in the Bahamas at 2013 and went acrossthe Okeechobee waterway, and then went to Snead Island Boat Works, decommissioned the boat, pulled the mast, took everything off the boat, put it in a van, moved it to a storage building, and trucked the boat into the factory.

07:28
And then the the island packet factory had our boat for six months.

07:32
And we had everything redone, the through hulls, the hoses, the tanks, the the chain plates, new rigging, and then we trucked it back out.

07:43
to Snead Island and then we rebuilt it.

07:46
That was the first island packet refit, if you will, in 2013.

07:54
So you were asking him to do what, a program, a refit program?

07:58
Yeah, I was trying to convince the factory that there was a market in working on our fleet and that there was a real good market if they would just focus on upgrading and refitting our aging2,700 island packets that need work.

08:18
And so I volunteered our boat to them and pretty much an open checkbook to try this project.

08:27
Like go ahead and take an old packet and gut it and redo all the things that could sink the boat.

08:35
And so they built a spreadsheet and they took in about four boats, I think they did, they tried.

08:42
And then they concluded that this is not what they wanted to do.

08:46
And it was also at the time when they were being closed on by the banks and they went out of business.

08:53
So there was there was a couple island packets that got stuck in the refit program at the original factory that had to get their boat back out of the factory after the factory was closed by the banks.

09:07
So it never really, it never really worked out thatThe factory started a refit program.

09:12
It's a great idea.

09:15
But here's another question for you.

09:18
Greetings from Olympia, Washington.

09:20
Curious on your opinion on the Compact 27.

09:23
Considering upgrading my from my Catalina 22 to that boat to cruise Puget.

09:28
Is it Puget Sound?

09:32
Yeah, the Compact.

09:34
is an 04.

09:35
So I think this guy-- I told him to come on here because I figured he would know what-- Very nice boat.

09:44
Compact is a very nice boat, very comparable to the island packet, if not better.

09:49
Yeah, that would be a great boat to go offshore on.

09:52
Buy it.

09:52
Go sailing.

09:55
yeah, there you go.

09:56
OK, Nathan, you heard it from Hayden and and Radine.

10:01
OK, so so let's go back to the island pack at 27.

10:05
What What all what kind of cruising did you do when you're 27?

10:10
Did you?

10:10
We had so much fun with that boat.

10:13
We were both teachers, so we had the summers off.

10:16
So every summer we would go up and down the Chesapeake Bay.

10:19
And we went the whole way to the C&D Canal, and one summer we actually went the whole way to the Outer Banks, past Norfolk, down the ICW, the beginning of the ICW, and into North Carolina.

10:30
So we had a great time on that 27.

10:33
Yeah, the little 27 is a sweet liveaboard boat.

10:36
It's funny, but we went down to the Outer Banks, and it was the longest trip we took, and we came back, and I can remember sailing up into Baltimore Inner Harbor, and then we sailed back across the Chesapeake Bay,And we said, ohh this this is the greatest boat.

10:51
We're going to refit this boat.

10:52
We're never getting rid of this.

10:53
This is going to be our boat.

10:54
That's what I thought about mine.

10:58
The storm took care of that.

11:01
We did a whole refit on the little 27, new canvas, new sails, rigging the whole thing.

11:07
Air conditioning.

11:07
Air condition.

11:08
We set it all up, and then the next year we sold it.

11:11
Right after we refit it, it was so funny because then we moved up to the 35, but the 27's a sweet boat.

11:19
Yes, I agree.

11:20
Do you know where that boat is?

11:22
Yes, it's called Tiki, and it's up in Mystic, Connecticut.

11:25
If it's Connecticut or Rhode Island, Mystic.

11:29
Connecticut.

11:30
Yeah, Mystic, where the Seaport is, and it's on a mooring ball up there, it's called Tiki.

11:37
And I've been in contact with the with the owner, and I told the owner if he ever wants to sell it, we'd buy it back as as a nice little.

11:45
Yeah, I'd love that.

11:46
I consider it I'd like to have that boat back.

11:48
It would be fun.

11:49
Yeah Well, you can keep that back at home and keep this one.

11:54
Yeah Everybody tells me that's a great plan.

11:58
I have a boat down in the Caribbean and I have a boat up in the Chesapeake Bay I can't convince raydeen of doing that though.

12:04
That's kind of like not in the plan She's got a big smile on her face.

12:08
No I need to change taste.

12:10
I love this life, but I don't want to do it all the time I see I seeWell, you guys are tough.

12:16
Oh, here you have see, you got more fans here.

12:19
You guys look fantastic.

12:21
Bill and Bill Seling-Senang.

12:24
Do you know them?

12:26
Oh yes, Seling.

12:27
Oh, they're our fun Miami team.

12:29
They are a blast.

12:30
Those people are so much fun.

12:32
Yeah.

12:32
See, all these people are tuning in to see you.

12:35
Oh, how fun.

12:36
So, um OK, let's see.

12:39
I did, I wrote down some questions.

12:41
Yeah.

12:41
uh How long have you been sailing?

12:43
I know you've had an island package since '91, but how long have you been sailing?

12:48
Well, in in college, we were driving to summer school and we saw a cute little sailboat for sale and Hayden sold a '57 Chevy in order to have enough money to buy that little sailboat.

13:00
It was called a Chrysler Buccaneer.

13:02
Back in the day, the Chrysler Car Corporation made sailboats.

13:06
They made a mutineer, a buccaneer, and a privateer.

13:10
So ours was the largest of the three yeah 18 footer and there was a very active racing class on the east coast in the midwest So we raced that boat for almost 10 years.

13:21
Yeah, but before that now it's interesting before that What year was this?

13:26
This was been uh, 1980 79 80, but before that in college days 76 77.

13:33
Oh, that's right.

13:34
We We uh, I was mowing my professor's lawnAnd the neighbor had a a snark, a styrofoam snark sailboat in the garage.

13:44
And I'm mowing the lawn, and I'm looking over at that sailboat and fascinated by it.

13:49
And the neighbor comes out and goes, well, you know how to sail, obviously, don't you?

13:53
Oh, yeah, yeah we know how to sail, no problem.

13:56
Well, you're welcome to take it anytime you want.

13:58
So right here and I go, oh, we'd like to take it next weekend.

14:01
So we take it out, go over the Susquehanna River, we launch the boat onto the shore,put the mast in it, we're looking at this, and the current is ripping by in the Susquehanna River down to a dam.

14:14
And we're like, oh, this this looks pretty dangerous.

14:17
We really don't know what we're doing.

14:18
So we put the boat back in the van, drove home, and he said, how was it?

14:22
Oh, it was great, great, we loved it.

14:24
Can we use it next weekend?

14:26
Yeah, use it next weekend.

14:27
So the next weekend, we go up to Brickerville Lake, a little lake above Linitz, Pennsylvania.

14:32
We throw it in this lake, we paddle out, we get the sail up,And we are so excited because we're like sailing, you know, and we're just drifting around the little styrofoam snart.

14:43
That was '76 and '77 college days, and that's when we started sailing.

14:48
And then we got this Chrysler Buccaneer, which turned out to be a very fast boat.

14:54
The Olympic class that is called the Flying Dutchman is is designed by the same guy, Rod McAlpine Downey.

15:01
He designed the Flying Dutchman, and he also designed these boats for Chrysler.

15:05
The only thing he changed on the Chrysler boat was he took off the trapezes, and you you couldn't trapeze, double trapeze all of them.

15:12
But it was a 400-pound boat with 400 square feet of sail area, and Radina and I raced it all over the East Coast from sixth position up to second position, nationally ranked in a fleet of about 150 boats.

15:27
And we did really well racing it, but we never could win the national title, so we gave up on that and bought the 27Started drifting around the Chesapeake Bay, which is definitely not a racing boat.

15:38
So Marlon Sparkplug says Hayden and Radine are great teacher teachers.

15:43
Oh, thank you.

15:45
That's so nice.

15:46
Hey, nailing my buddy.

15:48
My spark plug buddy back in Stuart, FL.

15:50
I love that guy.

15:51
He's a good man.

15:53
Mayland and Blue Water Linda, my little girl.

15:56
Mayland.

15:57
OK, yeah, so OK, so.

16:02
So we're talking '76 is when you first...

16:05
Yeah, '76, '77, yeah.

16:08
Okay, when you started sailing.

16:11
So let's go back to the '35.

16:13
What made you choose that specific model?

16:17
Oh, wow.

16:17
Well, we we had taken the '27 past our friend's '35 for about five years, and every time we would go by it, we'd look at the pretty curved sheer line that they have.

16:28
I just love the the curves of the '35.

16:32
And um, so we kind of fell in love with the way it looked And that that's where we started at.

16:38
So we we're really excited about that And here it is on the screen Yeah, the 35 is a sweet model and we we love the shape of it and it sails really well and so, um It more was a financial Decision because we really love the 40.

16:58
We think the 40 is our favorite model butthe 40s were 250 000 in uh 2001 when we bought this boat and the 35s were 150 000 when we bought this boat so We were able to afford the 35 but we couldn't afford the the 40.

17:18
So, um, yeah, so we've had remind me again Okay, so this is 94 and you bought it in we bought in 2001 2001.

17:28
Okay It was seven years oldWhen we bought it.

17:32
Yeah.

17:32
So Jeff Gabor says hello from Chicago.

17:36
Wish I was there.

17:37
My Chicago buddy, Jeff Gabor.

17:39
He's my boat buddy from 20, 30 years.

17:42
He got an island pack of 35 as well, and then bought a 420.

17:46
He had a 420.

17:47
We boated together down to the Bahamas.

17:49
Great man.

17:50
Good memory.

17:51
Good memory.

17:52
So all your fans are on here.

17:55
So we've gotActually we have more more in the live stream than ever before.

18:01
So it took, it took #12 and you guys coming on to get this many in the live stream.

18:08
So this is awesome.

18:11
So OK, I'm always amazed by y'all's.

18:16
Skills and your energy with your maintenance and your prep work and when you're making winterizing and even building the stuff in your house that when you built that downstairs bar, I think you built a deck.

18:28
I mean, it's just crazy all the stuff you accomplish.

18:31
Where did you get these mad skills?

18:36
Well, he was lucky that he had a wonderful grandfather who knew how to do many, many different things.

18:41
and encouraged him to to learn how to use tools and how to accomplish things and also a strong work ethic.

18:48
Just yeah and I obviously productive and being careful with things, taking care of what you have, making it last.

18:57
Lancaster County, the the home area of the Amish and I grew up every day with horse and buggies going past my bedroom window and I.

19:09
I would go to my grandfather's place, and we would weld things and machine parts.

19:14
He was a tool and die maker.

19:16
And we would I would mow his lawn.

19:19
He had two-acre property.

19:20
I would mow his lawn with a riding mower.

19:22
He had three riding mowers because one riding mower would never make it all the way around two acres.

19:27
It would break down.

19:28
You'd have to push it back in, hoist it up in the lift, weld it, fix it, tear it apart.

19:33
So I grew up building bikes, go-carts, motorcycles,fixing cars, you know, I I went off to college to be what would be a shop teacher an official shop teacher and I ended up not really I ended up not really teaching shop.

19:50
I ended up teaching architectural drawing is what I fell into and then that led to auto cad and designing houses and then auto cad led to computers and then I built a computer lab and then computer lab led to web design andteaching high school students internet technologies and servers.

20:11
And so that's, I just progressed along my 34 years of teaching with different careers, but all based on like building and fixing and making things, which which I still love the, I'll tear apart the engine and fix something if it breaks.

20:25
And I don't have a problem with that.

20:27
I mean, that's what I do.

20:28
I know how to do that.

20:30
Speaking of careers, I have to introduce tonight's sponsor, which is me.

20:35
I'm Tinly Mark.

20:36
I just sell real estate in case you didn't know.

20:38
And if you are interested in a gulf front property, that's me.

20:44
I'm good at that.

20:45
I also have another podcast, which is on Thursday nights, the Getting Beachy Real Estate Lifestyle podcast.

20:52
And I do that with one of my, a person on my team, a friend and team member at RE/MAX of Orange Beach.

20:58
So if you want to tune in live for that, please do.

21:03
Perfect.

21:03
Sounds good.

21:05
Thank you.

21:06
So do you-- is there anything that you are not going to fix that you are going to hire somebody?

21:13
Uh No.

21:14
No But wait, anything up the mast?

21:17
Well, yeah, rigging.

21:18
I don't I don't climb the mast anymore.

21:21
I I don't like that.

21:22
I I go to the spreaders.

21:23
I take the radar up and down.

21:25
I've done that four times.

21:26
ButRadina and I took the engine out of this boat, and we had it remanufactured, and we put it back in.

21:34
We pulled the transmission on this boat on a mooring ball twice now and put it back in.

21:39
Um The entire battery bank, the electrical grid, the windlass system, all the electronics we've taken out and re-upgraded and installed, the refrigerator, the air conditioning, the inverters, the Starlink.

21:56
Every system on this boat, we have taken out at least three times and put back in.

22:03
Because we've had this boat all these years.

22:05
We always thought we would move up to a 40.

22:08
That's what we want to do.

22:10
But this this boat doesn't stop us from going anywhere.

22:14
And it sails really well.

22:16
And you've got it the way you want it.

22:17
I mean-- yeah If I start on another boat, I got to rip it all apart.

22:22
AndAnd redo everything again.

22:25
I start over.

22:26
I got to pay somebody to get it there.

22:28
Look, we got, we got, we got some, we got some comments here.

22:31
We have to acknowledge this guy here, Ralph, he is, he lives in Orange Beach, but he's on his boat with his wife in Brazil right now.

22:39
So we're in Brazil.

22:40
Enjoying your podcast.

22:41
Then we got somebody from County Cork, Ireland.

22:47
Yeah, County Cork Island.

22:50
And then we have.

22:52
And then we have your friends bill and bell.

22:55
You're a great photographer too.

22:57
Look at that.

22:57
Ohh I Love those guys in miami beach.

23:02
There's so much fun Lovely people but oh you did have mac yacht services your whole though, right you did you had them shine up your hole?

23:13
Yeah, but now back up a little bit.

23:15
Remember 2013 we did the refit with the factory and then we wouldn't then we prepared themgo to the Caribbean.

23:23
So we came down to Stuart, to Mack Yachts, 'cause we love Travis, Mack sails, and we love Colin's Mack services.

23:31
And in 2017, we gave our boat to Colin and Travis, and we did new rigging, new sails, new electronics, the water maker, inverters.

23:43
We did all our upgrades to sail down to the Caribbean.

23:47
Only to leave our boat in Puerto Rico for Hurricane Irma and Maria.

23:51
Yeah, I remember Yeah, we were we were heading we were heading to Grenada and we fell in love with the Caribbean again and we wanted to we wanted to just stay up in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

24:04
So we said let's store in Puerto Rico So we did and that was the year Irma and Maria leveled the BVI's and also us So we had a broken mask now in Puerto Rico in 2017 andWe could colin stepped up and wanted to send things in to fix it And we decided to put the boat on a ship and ship it back to west palm beach and drive it up to colin So 2018 we did a third refit 2013 we refit with the factory 2017 necessary.

24:34
Well, that one was necessary We had a broken master broken So we we refit with colin in 2017 and then we refit with colin in 2018 and when he finished that wedecided instead of sailing back to the Caribbean in May, we sailed back up to Annapolis.

24:52
And then 2019, we started again and said, OK, we're going to Grenada.

24:56
And then we we pushed the boat to Grenada that that year and finally got it all the way down to Grenada.

25:02
And then you left it there.

25:04
Yeah, only then experienced COVID for a year.

25:07
And so we've not we've not had a great Caribbean season yet.

25:12
That's our problem.

25:14
So not a problem, but that's a reality.

25:17
So now what we're trying to do is, we're coming down here and we're going to stay here for one to two seasons to try to just take in these Caribbean islands casually.

25:27
And that's that's why-- Hope we're in such a hurry.

25:29
Yeah, that's why we're-- Mike Stevens, you've got another fan here.

25:32
Hayden, the absolute best.

25:34
Katie and I are tuning in from Maryland.

25:37
We miss you guys.

25:38
Best cruising mentors ever.

25:41
Everybody that's in this podcast right now.

25:43
I want you to like and subscribe Please like this video and help the algorithms.

25:48
Thank you.

25:48
Michael Stevens is a super guy man.

25:51
He He and Katie you want to talk about something Michael Stevens decided I'm gonna buy a boat.

25:59
We're gonna get it done.

26:00
We're gonna get on the boat We're gonna go down to the crib down to the Bahamas and up the Maine and back to Annapolis and I'm gonna sell the boat go back to workAnd this is exactly what they did.

26:10
I've never seen anybody do this.

26:12
They bought a 350, I helped them buy a 350, and we found it, and they they fixed it up.

26:18
And he and Katie, his girlfriend, wife now, they they eloped into Florida, was so much fun.

26:26
They are a blast, and they were great boat buddies last season.

26:29
I really enjoyed sailing with them.

26:32
Good people.

26:33
well And so are you saying that not everybody does what they say they're going to do when it comes to sailing?

26:39
No, exactly.

26:39
No, what happens is everybody everybody goes and buys a boat and they have a big plan.

26:47
And the plan is usually too big to start with.

26:50
You want a small scale plan and you want to baby step in like, I'm going to go here first and then if that works.

26:57
Go small go now, right?

26:58
And then I'll go a little bit farther, I'll go through a little bit more.

27:02
And then each year you keep stretching and in the meantime you're upgrading and.

27:08
all the problems of your boat not Do it all at once.

27:12
Yeah, if you just find a boat and take off you're gonna have all kinds of problems.

27:16
Well, didn't that the truth?

27:19
That's the way it works So Michael Stevens, he is the he he Michael and Katie did what they said they were gonna do.

27:26
That's awesome Hayden and rating tell everybody to like this video, please will you just one?

27:33
You know like this video like and subscribe to this podcast.

27:36
Come onPlease, pleaseWhy not?

27:40
Absolutely.

27:41
Thank you for that little plug.

27:42
So it's time to plug you.

27:45
So you are, you're both boat brokers, correct?

27:49
No, I just help a lot.

27:51
We do it as a team.

27:52
We do it as a team.

27:53
I'm I'm the broker with Whitaker Yacht Sales and I've been with them 10 years.

28:00
And I basically work as a buyer's broker usually.

28:04
trying to help buyers find the boat they want usually just in the island packet brand and that's what I've done and yeah I sell four to six boats a year and and try to help people out and so I enjoy it we we both do it together and we find that when we go on a showing of a boat we can address each side of the equation for the buyer you know I'll deal with the mechanical side Radine will deal with theliving aboard side, and together we're pretty good at presenting and and assessing the boat.

28:40
I mean, we've actually told people not to buy the boat and cancel surveys already, and we walk off the boat and say, No, that's not the deal.

28:49
I'm not I'm not interested in selling you the boat, I'm interested in helping you find what works for you.

28:55
The money's not the deal for us, it's it's we want to help people get into the product line.

29:00
We feel like matchmakers matching up the right.

29:05
That's the way I feel about when I work with buyers with real estate.

29:08
I'm not here to force them into something that doesn't fit for them.

29:10
You know, they say what they want.

29:14
I try to find it for them.

29:15
And if it works, it works, right?

29:17
Exactly.

29:18
Yeah.

29:18
It works for us really well because we don't have to do this.

29:24
Um, so Joyce, this is somebody from our area.

29:27
I love these videos.

29:27
I'm sure you're learning so much more.

29:29
I want you to be safe on your adventure.

29:31
She's talking to me.

29:32
She wants me to be safe.

29:33
People always like by yourself.

29:35
I'm like, there's a lot of people that can't be by themselves, by the way, because I hear that if I had a dollar for any time, every time someone said that to me, you go by yourself.

29:45
I think it would be really hard to single hand.

29:48
I'm not sure I would be very good at it.

29:51
I don't think I would be good at it.

29:53
Freeing about it.

29:54
I would think it would be once you're under sail and you're out there and you're you realize it's just you It's got to be a unique feeling a totally different feeling Do you know how many people come up to me on the dock after I've pulled in somewhere and go?

30:08
I mean like older guys older men you I really love the way you handle your boat you just so they compliment me strangers andBut you deserve it.

30:19
Because I've learned so much from going in and out of all these places, up and down over these years, that you get good at it, you knowYou deserve it, yeah.

30:27
You better get good at it.

30:28
And you deserve the compliments because you're out there knocking it out on your own, and a lot of people wouldn't do it.

30:34
Yeah, Yeah it's it's very fulfilling.

30:37
I'll say that.

30:38
It's a real sense of accomplishment.

30:40
It should be.

30:41
And you know, I'm 58 years old.

30:43
I need something to stay, you know, keep the adrenaline going, right?

30:46
You're young girl.

30:47
You're young.

30:47
You got an age.

30:48
Don't worry about it.

30:52
So.

30:52
So I did want to cover the boat broker thing.

30:55
And if anybody wants to get a hold of them, I do have your how to find you at SB Island Spirit on Facebook, Instagram and X and.

31:08
And the e-mail is HaydenCochran@gmail.

31:12
And so if any if anybody's looking for a boat and anybody out there that wants to comment and ask a question in the chat, it only works in Facebook and YouTube.

31:22
This is StreamYard and for some reason, like you could watch on all these other channels.

31:26
We're live on eight channels by the way, eight profiles.

31:32
And you could, but you can only comment live here inIn Facebook and YouTube.

31:38
So you the boat can't emphasize enough.

31:41
If you're out there looking for a boat, please contact these guys because they they can really, really help you.

31:48
Especially, I mean, I know you sell all boats, but especially in that arena of island packet and what you reminded me a minute ago when you said.

31:57
You've walked off the boat said cancel the survey.

31:59
I don't know if you saw the interview with Cecilia who you introduced me to Thank you very much.

32:04
We've become very good friends.

32:05
She was my first interview She says that she would sometimes go run don't walk from this boat Yeah, yeah and a lot of a lot of surveys a lot of surveys look that way when you get into them.

32:21
Yeah, and it's a shame the listing brokers really shouldmore Yeah, yeah, it's really really It's really a challenge.

32:33
So I I like helping buyers assess the market and go after the boat that we think would match their Sailing goals because we've been out here 30 years doing this with 50,000 plus miles and we know what works and doesn't work and what you need and what you don't need so We can really help people out with the With finding the boat.

32:55
YeahNow, do you if if you ever do list a boat, I'm sure it comes up.

33:01
Do you ever recommend that the seller get a survey ahead of time?

33:07
What we recommend is the seller get a rig survey ahead of time, but not a survey ahead of time.

33:15
You know, they know what's wrong with their boat or what needs fixed, but the rigging inspection.

33:20
Isn't usually part of the survey.

33:22
I know seal goes up the rig, but most surveyors don't want the rig thank you for recommending her by the way, right?

33:27
So So you usually want to get a As a seller you'd want to get a rig survey written up Then you can present that to the buyer because they're going to need that for their insurance uh, uh settlement They usually can't get an insurance binder without a rig inspection They're going to get the survey no matter what to buy the boat, but the insurance might require rig inspectionSo we yeah, sorry.

33:54
Well, I interviewed a rigger, a local rigger here in Pensacola on one one of my podcasts and he said that don't be so sure that the insurance will cover your rigging, that you need to like if it's a certain amount of years old and that you need to be, you need to be up to date on.

34:14
on getting surveys of your rigging and and making those repairs and upgrades, or else it may not cover it if something happens.

34:23
Yeah, we get a rig inspection almost every couple of years in Stuart with Richard Gordon.

34:28
He's He's phenomenal.

34:30
He used to work with Max Sales and then he went out on his own with Stuart Rigging and his business name is Rhino Rigging, but he's phenomenal and he, we always, when we're in Stuart, we always ask him,To come over and do a rig inspection at boats we've sold we've had him uh do a rig inspection first also Yeah, and before I go, you know, I go I travel once a year I go to the keys or almost to the keys and before I leave I have I go ahead and have him come over from pensacola and Right.

35:03
I said act act like i'm your daughter or your sister or your mama that are about to go across the gulf Okay ExactlyYeah, I have no worries with my rig, because Richard went over it just two, three months ago in Stewart, and it's all checked out.

35:20
And he and I tuned it up and put it into the proper specs for the loads on the rig.

35:26
And we do that every couple of years, and it's good to do.

35:29
The boat sails better if the rig is tight.

35:33
Sure, and peace of mind, you know, just peace of mind.

35:36
If it gets rough out there, you're not thinking, mm, is this going to hold up?

35:40
So you you started the island packet yacht association first you started the website, right?

35:47
And then you started the facebook page.

35:48
Tell me how that came about That's a long history there that started in about 1997 98 uh Again, I was teaching high school seniors how to do web design So I would come home in the evening and I would look for opportunities to build websites for businesses small businesses that were starting upAnd so, like I I built the website for the Island Packet dealer, Ship and Rock Hall.

36:18
And then I built a website for the Maryland Sailing School, Tom Tersi.

36:22
And then I built the IP Photos website, which was the precursor to all this was, we had an e-mail server where the Island Packet fleet was emailing each other questions and responding back and forth, the typical e-mail server.

36:40
And the e-mail server could not attach a picture, it wasn't allowed in the service.

36:46
So we only had text.

36:47
So I wanted to solve that by building a website where we could upload pictures.

36:52
This is 1997, '98.

36:55
We could upload pictures, put a caption underneath it, and then have people comment on it.

37:01
You know, the precursor to Instagram and Facebook, basically.

37:05
'Cause Facebook didn't come out the 2004 Instagrams.

37:09
2008 was it yeah was it 2004 2008 no.

37:14
Yeah.

37:14
So this is 97 98.

37:17
I built a photo sharing website It was called ipphotos.com We did a we did about three four months.

37:25
It had five thousand photos that it that it Downloaded accepted that people uploaded so we had the word out Just through the mail server the island packet mail server.

37:37
So what we would do is we wouldwe would put a discussion up about, hey, I'm putting this autopilot in, and this is how I'm doing it.

37:44
And here's the link to the photographs that support what I'm talking about.

37:49
So they would put the five or six photos over in IP photos, and they would write about it in the mail server.

37:55
And we had this back and forth discussion with now photographs and e-mail.

38:01
And that was the beginning of the Island Packet websites.

38:05
And so from that,It grew to a discussion board And then uh, you know at the same time ip homeport, stewart williams built ip homeport He actually was at one of our island packet rendezvous at rock hall and I was blabbing about Us making island packet websites and he went home and made an island packet website also So that's where homeport came from was the rock hall website So we started having thesewebsites being built, and I started building, I'd come home from school and I'd need something to work on, and so now we had a photo sharing website that was very active, then I added a document sharing website to that, and then I added a forum, a discussion board to that, and this thing just kept growing and growing and growing.

38:54
Amazing.

38:55
And that became IP Photos, and then over the years I moved it over to the website IPYOA,for the Island Packing Yacht Owners Association.

39:06
And that now has 20,000 pictures in it and 10,000 discussions and 5,000 members are on the website.

39:18
But we've kind of moved everything over to Facebook now.

39:20
Everybody's mobile and everybody's on their cell phone.

39:24
So these websites aren't as popular as they were back in the late 90s and the early 2000s.

39:32
So I still run all these and I still pay for them.

39:36
The factory doesn't pay for any of this.

39:38
And uh, I I run these servers which cost me money every month and they're just more like they're like an archive now.

39:47
They're They're there for people that want to look up like how should I put an autopilot on a 380 and there's 500 pictures of how to put autopilot on a 380.

39:58
So there's all this archive there that'sThat is great.

40:01
So for anybody who doesn't know, if you want to do anything, you want to know anything, you want to know where to order a old part for your boat, go to, well, I go to the Facebook page, but also I have been on, you know, I've posted things.

40:16
I haven't done it in a while on the website, but you can find out anything on there.

40:21
All you have to do is search.

40:23
Yeah, you just go IPYOA and you find, you find the website is public, so everybody can search that.

40:30
The Facebook group, the IPYOA Facebook group, we have locked down to just owners or former owners, uh because if you're not an owner, what happens is people want to join the Facebook group, and then the very first question they all ask, tell me about tanks, tell me about chain plates, tell me about problems with island packet yachts, and they're not an owner, and so we decided to not letnon-island packet owners into that group.

41:01
If you want to ask those questions, you go over on the website and there's all that's discussed over there for the last 10-- Be a lot of clutter.

41:10
Yeah, go look it up on the IPYOA.com website and it's all discussed there.

41:16
The owners are more active, like, hey, what's this part here?

41:19
How do I fix this?

41:20
And we help each other with our boats on the Facebook group.

41:23
It's become really dynamic and very supportive on that.

41:28
On the Facebook group how many members are on the Facebook group?

41:31
There's 1750 on the Facebook group 1700 people Yep, and and from all over the world, right?

41:40
Oh, absolutely all over the world Yeah, Yeah every every continent we have packet owners on.

41:47
Yeah.

41:48
Well, maybe not in antarctica No, there's no sailboats there.

41:53
There's no Judith Jacobs who don't sail down there though.

41:55
She's She's our arctic sailorOh, yes, she she was commenting today.

42:00
So I talked to Colin today Colin Mac and he's great.

42:06
He's great sending he's gonna be sending out the Rub rail that I need which cost unfortunate the the shipping cost just as much as the part All of that charge but um, I said I want I said I saw the pictures of of island spiritOf the job you did on I said that's that's what I'm looking for.

42:31
That's what they're gonna do Hopefully as I got it out to fix my gelcoat fix the rub rail and then fix all the anomalies in the gelco It's a 1998 boat and he said we'll make sure you tell them to wet sand it with 1200 1200 grain or I'm not sure what grid sandpaper.

42:53
YeahAnd so is is that right?

42:56
I mean, I have to-- I don't know i don't know what they did, but the boat always looks great when Colin's done with it.

43:05
We've had him buff and wax it multiple years.

43:08
And when you go to his website, when you go to the outpac-- That is something that you hire out.

43:13
Yeah.

43:14
Ohh OK.

43:15
Waxing I hire out.

43:17
Well, we didn't used to, but now we do.

43:21
Yeah, we're 90 years old now, so we can't do this anymore.

43:25
I'm not doing that anymore.

43:29
I know you're not 90.

43:30
Nobody thinks you're 90.

43:32
Yeah, we can't do that.

43:34
She's like, don't tell them we're 90.

43:37
great.

43:37
You look great.

43:38
Yeah I don't know if we can do this when we're 100, but we're getting there.

43:42
Oh, no, keep doing it.

43:43
As long as you keep doing it, you will be able to keep doing it.

43:46
Don't you think?

43:47
That's what we think.

43:48
That's what we think.

43:48
We're not sure.

43:50
We're trying.

43:50
Can't stop moving.

43:51
We're trying.

43:53
Yeah, I mean, you're not.

43:54
You don't have it in your near future of getting out of sailing, right?

43:57
Or moving to a trawler?

43:59
No, no, noI don't see an end of this.

44:03
No.

44:05
I hear that.

44:05
I've heard this on my travels.

44:07
People go, yeah, we were sailors for 100 years and now we're on this beautiful trawler.

44:11
When I'm looking at it, it looks like a one-bedroom condo on the water.

44:14
It's beautiful.

44:15
No, what I want to know, what we want to do is go over to Europe, which we've done twice now, rent the canal boats and drive the canal boats around Europe.

44:22
Now that is fun.

44:24
I saw you post that at least once.

44:27
Really.

44:28
That is fun.

44:29
Yeah, that's the way to go.

44:30
What about the american the great american loop?

44:32
Have you done that?

44:33
Oh, no, no i'm not interested in the mississippi river Well, it's not just mississippi river.

44:38
I mean, well, yeah, but that's most of it Yeah, we've been up the hudson already But we've been new york and hudson, but we haven't done the erie canal looks beautiful.

44:48
You haven't done the erie canal No, i'm not interested in going around the great loop i'd rather spend my time over in europe driving through the french canals That would be niceOK, alright, or I just, you know, I don't want to go north of here.

45:02
I want to go South or or or or east.

45:07
I'll let warm these people that sail up, you knowUp into Canada and into ice.

45:13
I'm like, I don't understand that you know I don't wanna.

45:16
I don't wanna do that.

45:17
No thank you.

45:18
No.

45:18
Yeah OK well.

45:22
So you you the last question I wrote down was where do you go from here but.

45:27
Your final destination for the boat on this trip is antigua, right you said Yeah, we're going to go uh to jolly harbor.

45:36
We like antigua a lot And we're going to store the boat there.

45:40
A lot of island packet owners are based there And have stored there over the years So we've been in we've we've we got a schedule there to haul out there may 2nd and we're going to put the boat there and then Go home and play house for the summer and then come back and start up in decemberand just do the Eastern Caribbean casually for a full season.

46:01
That sounds wonderful.

46:03
And so you're gonna probably go home and build a wing on your house while you're home.

46:07
Yeah, go home and put an addition of the garage.

46:09
I already have it grown up in CAD.

46:11
I'm ready.

46:12
I got a building permit for everything, yeah.

46:14
Ohh And for everybody that's watching, and there's still, there's a whole bunch of people still in the live stream.

46:24
If you've ever seen you got Hayden and Radine, I guess winterize a boat or get it ready for being blunt for you to be.

46:34
It is an unbelievable process that you guys go through.

46:37
There's the attention to detail, even when you're traveling, when you're sailing, you cover up your teak.

46:44
Yeah, yeah, which is so smart because mine looked a mess but when I come when I came back, it was so pretty when I left.

46:51
This yeah, this teak covering tape that we found we discovered it in grenada with the mega yachts down there And they were covering this mega yachts teak with this white tape that looked like duct tape And I asked them what they were doing They said well we're getting right across the atlantic and we'd like to cover the varnish and then we get the other side We peel it off.

47:13
I said well Doesn't it leave residue or anything?

47:16
They said no, so they told me what it was and where to get it.

47:19
So for I don't knowFive years.

47:22
We get it from yeah National Marine Supply in Fort Lauderdale.

47:28
I'll have to send you a link to it, but it's called cap rail tape, is what it's called, or cap rail protective tape.

47:36
Anyways, they make this stuff, you tape it down, it comes in four, six, eight, 12 inch wide rolls, and you tape it down over your varnish, and we've left it on for 18 months already in Puerto Rico.

47:50
When we during covid covid we couldn't get back to the boat And uh, we came back peeled it right off the varnish looked like I just did it So we always tape we always tape all the varnish at the end of the season with this tape and cover it up It works.

48:06
That's what i'm going to do because just six months of coming going from orange beach down to the keys and backYep.

48:15
You know, it really is showing its wear now.

48:17
So I'm going to have to pay somebody to do that.

48:20
Yeah.

48:22
I need to take a lesson and you guys are doing maintenance myself.

48:27
Well, we keep a little spreadsheet and Google documents every day when we're decommissioning the boat.

48:32
We write down, OK, the day we did one, two, three, four things, you know.

48:36
And then we have this document that shows what we did and takes about five days to put the boat away to de-rig it.

48:43
And uh, otherwise you forget.

48:45
Yeah, I don't know we just we just log it just so we have a record And do you post it on in the facebook group?

48:55
Well, it would It would be depressing to read the list.

49:00
It's not fun to read.

49:01
Yeah kind of crazy All right.

49:04
Well, um, that's all the questions I have for you.

49:07
So if um, will you when you get toYou say in in in antigua, uh antig How do you say it?

49:16
Antigua antigua.

49:18
Okay.

49:19
Yeah.

49:19
Um, when will you think you'll be there?

49:22
Well, we're going to go up to uh the virgin islands For uh the rest of march and then april will come back down here and the middle of april will be down in antigua And then we'll spend two weeks in antigua.

49:36
Then the beginning of may we'll start the decommission.

49:38
YeahOK, so I'm going to touch base with you when you get there, and maybe you can give us an update.

49:46
Yeah, it's real.

49:47
That would be fun.

49:50
And you got to see the stickers, remember?

49:51
Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeahLet me make that big.

49:55
So these are something that you you had made.

49:58
Yeah, these are the new logo for the Island Packet Yacht Owners Association.

50:02
So it's also on T-shirts and mugs, and at SVIslandSpirit.com you canFind the shop to go go find these.

50:11
So they're fun.

50:12
OK, so so you just gave a website, SV Islands.

50:16
This is this is how you find you on social media.

50:18
But you said SV Island spirit.com is where you order those.

50:23
Cool.

50:23
Right.

50:23
There's a there's a link there in the store to order.

50:26
Yeah.

50:27
For mugs and T-shirts.

50:28
Mugs and T-shirts.

50:29
And I'm getting the stickers up there next.

50:32
I'm going to bet you that you're going to have a big surge in orders.

50:38
In order to get these though, you have to either come to the Annapolis Boat Show or you have to find our boat and then you get these.

50:46
These are very rare.

50:48
I can't get one sent to me.

50:50
WellCome and visit us.

50:51
Well, maybe.

50:52
Maybe OK, I will.

50:54
Possibly.

50:54
That's what I'll do.

50:56
I'll fly down there in Antigua.

50:59
And I'll I'll bring all my mics and everything, and I'll interview you there in person.

51:04
And you get your t-shirt also.

51:06
You get your nice t-shirt.

51:07
I want that.

51:09
There you go.

51:10
Oh, yeah.

51:11
All right.

51:12
OK.

51:13
Well, thank you, guys.

51:14
This was a lot of fun.

51:16
You guys are, I said in my, I did a little update on my repairs the other day, a video, and I said you guys were island packet royalty, island packet loyalists.

51:26
Wouldn't you say?

51:29
Well, 1986 was our first rental of an island packet.

51:33
Oh, really?

51:34
So '86, '87, '88, '89, '90, we rented the island packet '38 for one month every summer, and then we were just sailing up and down the Chesapeake Bay.

51:46
And then we bought our cinnamon in and then we bought in 91.

51:49
So we've been to get over to the to make your way over to island packet.

51:54
So Nathan says I'd like a copy.

51:56
What do you, Nathan?

51:57
What do you mean you a copy of what?

51:59
The sticker?

52:00
Because you're talking about your compact 27.

52:02
So ohh did we sway you over to an island pack at 27?

52:07
Do tell Nathan.

52:09
Oh yeah.

52:11
So it took you a while to make it over to the ownership of island packet.

52:15
You had to I had a Catalina 25 that was my first boat and then I then I bought the island pack at 27, so Yeah, yeah, we came from the j35 world first believe it or not.

52:27
Well you raced I didn't raced a j35 for eight years That's why I like that's why I like sail trimming.

52:37
I come from the racing world Yeah, I hear that that really It really tunes your skillsYeah, it really teaches you how to how to trim.

52:48
Yeah, they get that extra quarter knot.

52:50
Not in a packet.

52:54
It's just uncomfortable in a packet.

52:56
Yeah, you're not there for speed, right?

53:00
Very comfortable running.

53:01
But Hayden wouldn't put up with a boat that didn't sell well.

53:04
Right.

53:05
So, yeah, sure.

53:07
Oh, so Nathan wants the winterizing list.

53:10
Oh, the winterizing.

53:12
OK.

53:13
I'll send people a link.

53:16
Okay.

53:16
Yeah, you'll send me a link.

53:18
That would be great.

53:19
And Nathan, you can message me and you can message me at You can send me an e-mail saltyabandon at gmail.

53:28
How about that?

53:29
Okay.

53:30
Perfect.

53:30
All right, guys.

53:31
Thank you so much for your time.

53:33
We went a little over what you had said, but I'm sorry.

53:37
There was a there's a lot of people still here.

53:39
So I'm glad you stayed over.

53:42
Thanks a lot.

53:43
Appreciate your work.

53:44
You made it fun for us.

53:46
Thank you.

53:46
All right, kiddo.

53:47
See you.

53:47
Thank you All right.

53:49
Bye.

53:49
Bye Bye.

53:50
Bye And we got the outro here.

53:53
Bye everybody tune in next week.

53:55
We have somebody else booked I've actually got people booked through april 3rd.

53:58
So please tune back here every wednesday at six o'clock live